Menghean language
| Menghean | |
|---|---|
| 멩국어 / 孟國語 | |
| Pronunciation | Meŋ.ɡu.ɡʌ |
| Native to | Menghe |
| Ethnicity | Meng |
Native speakers | 506,700,000 (2016) |
Mengheic (but see below)
| |
Early forms | Haedong language
|
Standard forms | Botong-ŏ (Standard Menghean)
|
| Dialects | See "dialects" below |
| Sinmun (primary) Gomun Romaja Menghean Braille | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Menghe |
| Regulated by | National Language Regulatory Institute 대멩국어규범원 大孟國語規範院 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | mh |
| ISO 639-2 | mgo |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
The Menghean Language (Sinmun: 멩국어, Gomun: 孟國語, Romaja: Menggukŏ) is the national language of Menghe and the most widely spoken language in that country. It is also spoken around Septentrion by members of the Meng ethnic diaspora. Historically it had a large number of regional dialects, some of which were mutually unintelligible, but in the last few decades these have steadily been replaced by Botong-ŏ (보통어 / 普通語), usually translated as "Standard Menghean" or "Common-use Menghean," which is derived from the widely spoken Donghae dialect.
Though ultimately rooted in the ancient Haedong language of what is now Goyang Province, early Menghean was strongly influenced by the ancient Menggok language to the southwest; the former contributed much of its grammar, while the latter introduced the Gomun writing system and has replaced much of its vocabulary. Contact with Dayashinese merchants and Dzhungestani nomads brought additional linguistic influences, adding to the complexity. As such, there is some debate among linguists as to whether the Haedong or Menggok language should be considered its ancestor. A similar debate exists as to whether Classical Menghean and the various southern dialects belong in the Mengheic language group or in a separate group of their own.
Menghean is an agglutinative language, with many words formed from the connection of unmodified morphemes, and has very few irregular conjugations but a large number of formal and informal tenses. It is also a topic-prominent language, and uses subject-object-verb word order (e.g. 내가 상자를 연다, Naega Sangjarŭl Yŏnda, "I (nominative) the box (accusative) open")
History and classification
The exact origins of the Menghean language are somewhat contested, in part because of its complex history and evolution. During the 1st and 2nd millennia BCE, what is now Menghe had two dominant cultural groups, the proto-Yang culture east of Lake Jijinghae and the Menggok culture of the upper Meng and Ryongtan river valleys. The rise of the State of Meng (110 BCE-278 CE) and subsequent dynasties spread many aspects of Menggok culture around the country, including its language and early writing system. Court officials from the Kang dynasty onward developed this into a standardized form of Classical Menghean, also known as Gwanhwa, which remained in official use until the middle of the 19th century. Local dialects in the more populous Donghae and Haedong areas, however, continued to use syntax and grammar derived from the proto-Yang languages, even as Classical Menghean vocabulary and writing trickled in. Emperor Taejo of Yi formalized the use of "commoner dialects," often including them alongside Gwanhwa text in public proclamations, and in 1862 Emperor Gwangmu of Sinyi officially recognized the Donghae dialect as the official language of Menghe. Since then, the modern Donghae dialect has formed the basis of the standardized Botong-ŏ form of Menghean.
Traditionally, Menghean scholar-gentry considered the ancient Menggok script to be the "ancestral language," and used Classical Menghean or Gwanhwa in literature, court discussions, and official records. Early writings from the Meng and Sunghwa dynasties dismissed the Yang-derived languages as "barbarian speech," though from the Yi dynasty onward official records treated them as a vernacular version of Classical Menghean adapted to suit local customs. Yet while it used the Gomun writing system and much of the same vocabulary, Classical Menghean had many differences in grammar and syntax, lacking the verb endings and conjugations central to modern Menghean. Analysis of past poems and dictionaries also suggests that prior to the late Jin dynasty, Classical Menghean phonology also incorporated vowel tones, which are absent in the Donghae dialect, and a different combination of consonants.
These differences, and others, have led a growing faction of linguists to argue for re-classifying the proto-Yang and Haedong languages as the true ancestors of modern Menghean, and treating the Menggok language as a strong external influence. By extension, some argue, Classical Menghean should be placed in a separate language family, along with the Chŏnro, Sunju, Su-san, and Hwangsŏ dialects, which incorporated far fewer influences from the Haedong-Donghae family and still use variations on Classical Menghean grammar. This move has received strong pushback from the Menghean government, which has argued that such a reclassification would "undermine national unity and disrespect the continuity of Menghe's five-thousand-year history." Among Menghean academics, however, there has been a growing recognition that the standardized vernacular Donghae dialect of the late 19th century was more closely related to Haedong and proto-Yang languages than to Gwanhwa. For its part, the National Language Regulatory Institute states on its website that "Haedong language is the father of modern Menghean, and Menggok language is the mother, both are inseparable from the language of the present."
Names
In Menghe, the Menghean language is today known as Menggukŏ (멩국어 / 孟國語). The first part refers to Menghe as a country, and the final syllable means "language," specifically a spoken language. It may also be called Guk-ŏ (국어 / 國語), simply "national language." The official dialect used in modern government documents and taught in public schools is Botong-ŏ (보통어 / 普通語), with "botong" meaning "common," "general," or "universal." It is usually translated in English as "Standard Menghean."
Other names have been used in the past, especially for dialects or standard versions of Menghean. During the Myŏn Dynasty, the Menghean language was divided into Gwanhwa (관화 / 官話), or "official speech," the standardized version used by government officials, and Minhwa (민화 / 民話), the vernacular versions used by everyday commoners, especially commoners in the eastern area of the country.
In most Casaterran languages, the word for the language is derived from Mengheano, a term popularized by early Sylvan explorers and missionaries who visited the country in the early 16th century before the Black Plague broke out. This term shares the same root as Menghe, but like Menghe its second syllable has no basis in the Menghean language and may have been a mistransliteration of 和 or 華 (both pronounced Hwa).
Geographic distribution
Menghean is considered the national language of Menghe, and holds official status in that country. It is the native language of the Meng ethnic group, which makes up 88.6% of Menghe's population. Official statistics collected by the Menghean government state that 488,993,000 Menghean residents are "native-level speakers" of some Menghean dialect, a figure which includes some 24 million non-Meng minorities who learned Menghean from primary school onward and can still demonstrate basic fluency. Separate statistics indicate that 55% of Menghe's population is "proficient" in the standard Botong-ŏ form of Menghean, though the proportion differs greatly across generations. This figure has risen in recent decades, in part because Botong-ŏ serves as a lingua franca for communication between in-country migrants and local urban residents.
The Mundŏk International Language Association estimates that there are an additional 9,384,000 native Menghean speakers in Dayashina and 8.4 million among the global Meng diaspora, bringing the worldwide total to slightly over 500 million. This makes it one of the most widely spoken languages in Septentrion.
In the wake of the Menghean economic miracle, Menghean has become an increasingly important world language, and it has gained popularity as a {{wp|Second_language|second language. The Mundŏk International Language Association has actively sought to promote further interest in Menghean, through public presentations and tutoring programs. Nearly all foreign instruction in Menghean is based on the standard Botong-ŏ form, though classes in other dialects are also available.
Dialects
There are a large number of regional dialects in Menghe, some of them so different as to be mutually unintelligible. Many of these differences are related to the linguistic origins described above, and can be traced either to Haedong or Menggok origins. In general, Haedong-derived dialects make more frequent use of vocabulary words lacking Gomun equivalents, and may still use digraphs and consonants eliminated from Botong-ŏ Menghean. Menggok-derived dialects, by contrast, can have very different grammar rules, with some lacking suffixes and conjugations altogether. A few Menggok dialects, especially those in the Chŏnro area, still use tones, length, and inflection to further distinguish between vowels.
Botong-ŏ (보통어 / 普通語) is the standard form of Menghean, promoted by the National Language Regulatory Institute in Donggyŏng. When originally adopted in 1902, it was based primarily on the Donghae dialect, but since then it has evolved into a distinct language that lacks many of the Donghae dialect's unique characteristics. Most changes have come in the area of vocabulary, through the replacement of more and more nouns, verbs, and adjectives by similar terms with Gomun equivalents. It is often considered the easiest dialect of Menghean to learn, because it uses the simplest vowel sounds and has very few irregular forms.
Since 1973, all public schools and state textbooks have been required to teach exclusively in Botong-ŏ Menghean, and the use of regional dialects in local government offices has steadily declined. Where local dialects are spoken, they are usually passed on by parents, grandparents, or other members of the community. Both state and private surveys have found a precipitous decrease in local dialect fluency among the generation born after 1987, the result of tighter enforcement of education laws and increased migration from rural areas to coastal cities. Historians' comparisons of past and present written works also suggest that over the course of the 20th century local dialects have grown more similar to each other and to Botong-ŏ, through the relaxing of complex forms and the introduction of new vocabulary words. Some linguists have expressed concern that Menghe's linguistic diversity is under threat, and have called for a revival of local dialects, but the Menghean government has censored many such claims on the grounds that they "sow disunity and secessionism."
| Dialect name | Areas where spoken |
|---|---|
| Standard dialects | |
| Botong-ŏ | Nationwide (official, standard form of Menghean) |
| Haedong-based dialects | |
| Haedong | Goyang province, Haenam province |
| Donghae | North Donghae province, South Donghae province, Chŏnghae province, Girim province |
| Haesŏ | Taehwa province, Goyang province, Girim province |
| Bukkukchŏn | Girim province, Sinbukgang province, Sŏsamak province, Polvokia |
| Bukhae | Polvokia, Dayashina |
| Chikai | Chikai province, Sŏsamak province, Baeksan province, Dzhungestan |
| Wŏnsŏ | Baeksan province, Sŏsamak province, Dzhungestan |
| Haeju | City of Haeju |
| Menggok-based dialects | |
| Gangsan | Gangwŏn province |
| Gukjung | Haenam province, Gangwŏn province, Junggyong directly-controlled city |
| Chŏnro | East Chŏnro province, West Chŏnro province, Hwangjŏn province |
| Chŏnro-dong | East Chŏnro province, Sanchŏn province |
| Ryongsan | Ryŏnggyŏng province, Sanchŏn province |
| Gyŏngsan | City of Gyŏngsan, Ryonggyŏng province |
| Dongchŏn | City of Dongchŏn, East Chŏnro province |
| Sunju | Sunju directly-controlled city, West Chŏnro province |
| Sŏjŏn | Hwangjŏn province, Uzeristan semi-autonomous province, Daristan semi-autonomous province |
| Sugok | Pyŏngsu province, Gangwŏn province |
| Goŭn | Altagracia |
Writing systems
Since the 13th century CE, the Menghean language has had two writing systems: Gomun (고문 / 古文, "old writing") and Sinmun (신문 / 新文, "new writing"). Gomun is a logographic writing system in which each character refers to a distinct one-syllable morpheme, while Sinmun is an alphabetic writing system consisting of phonetic units which are pieced together to form one-syllable composite characters.
Of the two, Simun is easier to read and write, and allows the user to easily tell a word's pronunciation from its spelling and a word's spelling from its pronunciation. Gomun is preferred in some contexts, however, because two morphemes may have the exact same pronunciation but different meanings. For example, "Sinmun" (신문) itself can refer to the alphabetic writing system, but it can also mean "news," while in Gomun the two are written differently (新文 and 新聞, respectively). Likewise, the Gomun characters 城, 姓, 性, 聖, 成, and 聲, among others, are all pronounced "sŏng" and are all written 성 in Sinmun, but each has a different meaning.
Traditionally, both writing systems were written from top to bottom, right to left, but today both are conventionally written from left to right and top to bottom. Sometimes, the top to bottom order is still used in advertisements and formal documents, but in columns that proceed from left to right. Modern Sinmun writing also incorporates spaces between words, though historical and modern Gomun do not. Menghean punctuation marks are similar to those used in Casaterran languages.
Gomun
The Gomun writing system is the oldest of the two Menghean alphabets, and is possibly the oldest continuously used alphabet in Septentrion. It originated around the turn of the 1st millennium BCE in the Meng river valley civilization, as a script written on oracle bones that were then heated in a fire as a means of divination. During the Meng Dynasty, Emperor Munjong standardized the different local writing systems into a single set of characters and components. For this reason, the character-writing system was initially known as Mengja (멩자 / 孟字), or "Meng letters."
Today, Sinmun has largely replaced Gomun in everyday usage, but Gomun is still used as an auxiliary writing system. Maps, dictionary entries, and certain government documents, for example, frequently include Gomun script beneath or beside the Sinmun equivalent, in order to distinguish between syllables that have the same pronunciation but different meanings. Gomun writing is also common on advertisements and decorations, as it is considered more cultured, formal, and traditional.
The Menghean education system introduces all students to a standard set of 1,500 to 2,000 common Gomun characters by the time they finish primary school. This is divided into 1,000 characters in middle school and either 1,000 characters in high school or 500 in technical school, depending on a student's track. Students can also opt to learn additional characters in college education, and are likely to come across additional ones relevant to their specialized field. The Ministry of Education defends the policy of teaching Gomun on the basis that it improves students' understanding of grammar and meaning while also preserving a treasured aspect of Meng culture.
Sinmun
The Sinmun alphabet was introduced in the late 13th century, under the reign of Emperor Taejo of the Yi dynasty. Having established control over the country after toppling the late Sŭng dynasty, he believed the new alphabet would improve literacy among the general population, allowing commoners to read laws and proclamations posted on official notice boards. It also allowed Haedong-descended dialects, such as Donghae, to write suffixes and verb conjugations that lacked Mengja equivalents. Sinmun was considered a "commoners' script" for many of the centuries that followed, and only in the late 19th century did government officials and literati begin to use it among themselves.
Sinmun characters are not logographic, but are instead formed from components that each represent an individual phoneme, such that together they form a syllable. Thus 멩 (Meng) is formed by combining ㅁ m, ㅔ e, and terminal ㅇ ng. There are sixteen "root letters" (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅎ, ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ) but with the addition of digraph vowels, iotized vowels and dipthongs, faucalized double consonants, and aspirated consonants, the total rises to 51. There are also dozens more letters and combinations of letters that have been eliminated from Botong-ŏ Menghean, though they are still found in historical documents and some remain in use in non-standard dialects.
Romaja
Romaja (로마자 / 로마字) is the official romanization system promoted by the National Language Regulatory Institute. It was introduced in 1933, and was intended to replace the Stuart-Lavender system promoted by two Columbian orientalist scholars in the early 19th century. Because many Menghean phonemes do not correspond perfectly to sounds in the Casaterran alphabet, the early romanization system often produced misleading combinations of letters, and the Donghae-Botong-ŏ dialect had also changed over the course of the century and a half after the Stuart-Lavender system was introduced. In order to avoid confusion between the two, Menghean law requires that all romanization in Menghe use the Romaja system, though Stuart-Lavender is still common in Altagracia and among the Meng ethnic diaspora.
| Sinmun | ㄱ | ㄴ | ㄷ | ㄹ | ㅁ | ㅂ | ㅅ | ㅈ | ㅊ | ㅋ | ㅌ | ㅍ | ㅎ | ㄲ | ㄸ | ㅃ | ㅆ | ㅉ | ㅇ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romaja | g/k* | n* | d | r/l* | m | b | s | j | ch | k | t | p | h | kk | tt | pp | ss | jj | ng* |
| Stuart-Lavender | k | n | t | l* | m | p | s/sh* | ch | ts | kh | th | ph | h | ck | tt | pp | sz | tch | ng |
| IPA | k | n | t | ɾ | m | p | s | t͡ɕ | t͡ɕʰ | kʰ | tʰ | pʰ | h | k͈ | t͈ | p͈ | s͈ | t͡ɕ͈ | ŋ |
Notes on consonants for Romaja:
- ㅇ at the end of a syllable is pronounced "ng," but when it occurs at the beginning of the syllable it is silent and the syllable begins with the following vowel. e.g. 고양 Goyang, "Goyang province".
- ㄱ is written "k" when it comes at the end of a syllable, unless the next syllable starts with m, g/k, or a vowel, in which case the terminal ㄱ is written as "g."
- If the syllable after it starts with ㄹ, terminal ㄴ is written "l," as is the ㄹ that follows. e.g. 천만리 chŏnmalli, "ten million li"
- ㄹ is written "r" before a vowel, semivowel, or h, and l everywhere else, e.g 리을 riŭl.
- Except when it ends one syllable and begins the next, in which case it is doubled to form ll. e.g., 울릉도 Ullŭngdo.
- In Stuart-Lavender romanization, ㄹ is transcribed to "l" in all contexts.
- In Stuart-Lavender romanization, ㅅ becomes "sh" before "i," e.g. 시장 shichang (market). This rule was omitted from Romaja.
| Sinmun | ㅏ | ㅑ | ㅓ | ㅕ | ㅗ | ㅛ | ㅜ | ㅠ | ㅡ | ㅣ | ㅐ | ㅒ | ㅔ | ㅖ | ㅚ | ㅟ | ㅢ | ㅘ | ㅝ | ㅙ | ㅞ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romaja | a | ya | ŏ | yŏ | o | yo | u | yu | ŭ | i | ae | yae | e | ye | oe* | wi | yi/e* | wa | wŏ | wae | we |
| Stuart-Lavender | a | ya | oh | you | o | yo | oo/u* | yoo/yu* | eu/u* | i | ai | yai | e | ye | oi | wi | yee | wa/oa* | wo/uo* | way | ue |
| IPA | a | ja | ʌ | jʌ | o | jo | u | ju | ɯ | i | ɛ | jɛ | e | je | ø/we* | ɥi/wi | ɰi* | wa | wo | wɛ | we |
- ㅙ and ㅞ are both rare in Botong-ŏ Menghean, but they remain common in some dialects.
- The National Language Regulatory Institute has debated updating Romaja "oe" to "wae," which is more similar to the modern Botong-ŏ pronunciation; e.g. 국회 gukhoe (National Assembly) is pronounced more similar to gukhwae.
- ㅢ may be pronounced "u" at the beginning of a word, "i" in the middle, or "e" at the end, e.g. 의의의 pr. "u-i-e."
- but only the terminal possessive 의 is represented "e" in Romaja, e.g. 우리의 차 Urie cha (our car).
- In Stuart-Lavender romanization, ㅜ/ㅠ becomes "oo" when the syllable begins and ends in a consonant and "u" when it begins or ends in the vowel.
- Similarly, ㅡ becomes "u" when the syllable begins and ends in a consonant and "eu" when it begins or ends in the vowel.
- In Stuart-Lavender romanization, ㅘ becomes "wa" at the beginning of a word but remains "oa" if preceded by a consonant; e.g. 화주 Hwaju (city of Hwaju) was formerly romanized as Hoa Chu. In Romaja it is always "wa."
- Stuart-Lavender romanization applied the same rule to ㅝ (forming "wo" or "uo"). Romaja discontinued this as well.
Romaja also includes additional rules to distinguish between words with similar Romanized writing but different pronunciations. If a syllable beginning in a vowel appears after a syllable ending in "ng," an apostrophe is added between them to clarify that ng represents ŋ rather than n+g. Thus, for example, the city of Jang'an is Romanized with an apostrophe; otherwise, the reader would assume it is pronounced Jan + gan. Similarly, if a syllable beginning in "e" appears after a syllable ending in "a," they are separated by an apostrophe to distinguish them from the "ae" combination representing a phonetic ɛ. Certain suffixes, like the possessive "e", are in all cases separated from the root word with a hyphen.
Vocabulary
Most Menghean words can be traced to either Haedong or Menggok origins, a distinction recognized by the National Language Regulatory Institute. Words of Menggok descent usually have matching Gomun characters (e.g., 행복 / 幸福 haengbok for happiness, 경찰 / 警察 gyŏngchal for police) that each correspond to a distinct one-syllable morpheme, while words of Haedong descent do not have Gomun equivalents and may have multi-syllable morphemes (e.g., 빗물 bismul for rainwater, 나 or 내 na/nae as the first-person singular pronoun). Prior to the introduction of the Sinmun alphabet, commoners developed a number of methods for writing non-Gomun words and suffixes, though dynastic governments exclusively used the all-Gomun Gwanhwa. A 2012 study by the NLRI estimated that 75-80% of currently used Botong-ŏ vocabulary words are of Menggok origin, though the share is lower among Haedong-derived dialects. Most Haedong-derived words are indigenous, while some have Old Chikai or Dzhunghestani origins and were introduced during the Jin dynasty.
During the 20th century, the Menghean language added a number of loanwords from Casaterran languages, especially Tyrannian English, Letnevian, and Sylvan. Because there are conventions regarding the composition and pronunciation of Menghean syllables, even in Sinmun these loanwords may not perfectly capture the original pronunciation - e.g., the town of Las Closcas becomes 라스 쿠로스카스, Rasŭ Kurosŭkasŭ.
As a subordinate body of the Ministry of Culture, the National Language Regulatory Institute has often changed vocabulary words for political reasons. Under the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe government (1964-1987), many English or Sylvan loanwords were replaced with equivalents from Polvokia or the FSR, which was seen as a Communist ally and therefore less "Western." After the Decembrist Revolution, however, the NLRI has steadily replaced loanwords of any sort by combining Gomun morphemes to produce a similar meaning.
| Original | Origin | DPRM revision | Origin | SRM revision | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 헬리콥터 hellikobtŏ |
helicopter | 밸토룥 baertoryot |
вертолет vertolyot |
직승기 jiksŭnggi |
直升機, "vertically rising machine" |
| 드랙더 dŭrakdŏ |
tractor | 뜨락또르 ttŭrakttorŭ |
трактор traktor |
견인차 gyŏnincha |
牽引車, "pulling vehicle" |
| 아파트 apatŭ |
apartment | 크왈티라 kŭwartira |
квартира kvartira |
공우 gong-u |
公寓, "public residence" |
Since the early 2000s, the National Language Regulatory Institute has also started replacing Haedong-origin verbs, nouns, and adjectives with words drawn from Gwanhwa that have Gomun equivalents. In some cases, the original word may be dropped from Botong-ŏ dictionaries, and it is nearly always dropped from Menghean language textbooks. Though supposedly intended to clarify homophones and draw more diverse influences into the Donghae-derived standard dialect, this move has drawn criticism from some linguists and historians, who see it as a politically motivated attempt to better align modern Menghean with the more prestigious Gwanhwa and Classical Menghean languages.
Occasionally, changes may be made because certain homophones are politically sensitive. In one famous case, the Gomun morpheme 讐 meaning "enemy" had its Sinmun and pronunciation changed from 수 (su) to 쑤 (ssu) so that 怨讐/원쑤, "mortal enemy," would no longer share the same pronunciation as 元帥/원수, "marshal," the preferred title of Choe Sŭng-min.
Language regulation
The sole official organization tasked with language regulation in Menghe is the National Language Regulatory Institute (대멩국어규범원 / 大孟國語規範院, Dae Meng Guk-ŏ Gyubŏmwŏn), sometimes abbreviated NLRI in English-language literature. It is a subordinate body of the Ministry of Culture. Its main duties include clarifying, updating, and enforcing standard definitions, pronunciations, and grammatical rules in the Botong-ŏ dialect, which serves as the standard version of Menghean. All Menghean language textbooks used in public schools must be reviewed and approved by the NLRI, as must all dictionaries of the Menghean language.
While its central thrust over the last several decades has been to standardize Menghean and spread the use of Botong-ŏ, the NLRI also maintains a number of subordinate offices concerned with the various dialects of Menghean, and historical departments that research old or archaic forms of the language. These bodies have less control over what is considered official, and have generally sought to protect linguistic diversity.
There is also an additional organization, the Mundŏk International Language Association, which seeks to promote interest in Menghean language and culture around the world. It is headquartered in Vuortakane, and has no financial or organizational ties to the Menghean government, though it does maintain a liaison office with the NLRI. It has also tried to cultivate an apolitical atmosphere, neither endorsing the Choe regime nor criticizing it, a policy which has periodically drawn fire from both sides but has generally allowed it to flourish internationally.